


Where There's Tears, There's Hope.

by chandlerjames



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst and Fluff, M/M, honestly they just wanted to look at the stars, pure angst and fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 08:23:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11413986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chandlerjames/pseuds/chandlerjames
Summary: Where there's tears, there's hope. That's one thing The Doctor had always insisted on. And hope, well, hope could help anybody achieve near enough anything they wanted to. Without hope, life had always seemed useless for The Doctor. The Master considers maybe it's time to start hoping himself. Hoping for some kind of a successful relationship between the childhood sweethearts after centuries of conflict. Hope, after all, may be all they have left.





	Where There's Tears, There's Hope.

The friendship between The Doctor and The Master dated back hundreds of years, and some may have even painted them as “childhood sweethearts”. Torn apart by The Master’s lust for power, they both knew that it was only a matter of time until they, inevitably, ended up together again. The last of the Time Lords now, the only two left to present their race, and they were constantly fighting against each other. As much as The Doctor didn’t like to let people know, he couldn’t deny to himself that he hated the conflict between them. Reminiscing had become The Doctor’s ultimate downfall, as he found himself evermore frequently wishing he could go back and change his own fate. Change The Master’s mind. Sadly, however, he always thought that this was not an option. Until now.

Although he didn’t like to make it obvious, The Doctor could tell that The Master’s return was a cry for help, especially this time. This time there did not appear to be any elaborate plan to take over Earth or enslave mankind. This time, The Master had arrived for The Doctor, and he had a new way of gaining his oldest friend’s attention. No murder and no threats, just hope. For The Doctor, hope had always seemed to be enough, and this was one of the many things that The Master admired about him. For The Doctor, hope was everything. Without hope, everything was useless but with hope, you could conquer the world. Although, admittedly, conquering the world had been a previous intention of The Master’s, this was no longer the case.

“Why are you hear, Master?” The Doctor was confused. He didn’t know what else to ask, but he knew that there was a fear rising inside him every second he stood with the other Time Lord. Not a fear for his life, or even for the planet, because he could save both of these if he needed to. But a fear for their future. If this visit really was different, what did it mean for them? If The Master really had decided he wanted to change, did this mean that they could possibly rekindle their old friendship and travel the stars together as they had always dreamed? Or was that now just some childish, unachievable fantasy, buried deep in their past?

“To help you,” The Master spoke the words with absolute certainty, although they both knew that it wasn’t the whole truth. The Master may have come to earth in the hopes that The Doctor would need help, but he also came to ask The Doctor to help him. This, however, was something they both knew he would never outright do. The Master’s eyes showed how much he wanted this, as they almost pleaded with The Doctor. He couldn’t hear the drums any more, but the rhythmic repetition of “help me” on a constant loop. The Master only had hope, now. He had hope that The Doctor still loved him enough to be merciful.

Despite all the warning signs that had stuck with him from previous encounters with The Master, and despite knowing that every single one of his companions would have told him not to, The Doctor invited The Master into his TARDIS. Trust was one of the things The Doctor knew he offered too much of, and he felt like he was handing every last drop of it to the other Time Lord with the invitation, and hoping with all his might that he wasn’t putting it in the wrong hands. Besides, inside the TARDIS was probably the safest place for The Master to be, especially for the human race. 

“Where should we go?” The Master asked, with a tone of voice that suggested complete indifference, but with a glint in his eye that suggested he had almost achieved all he wanted. The question was a difficult one to answer, and The Doctor did not want The Master to believe that he now had his complete trust. He was still as sceptical as ever. However, he also didn’t want to push him away. This was a cry for help and one thing The Doctor could never, ever let himself do was ignore a cry for help. Instead, he didn’t reply. He set the controls of the TARDIS silently, the whirring of the machine as it took of the only thing to break the air between them. Nobody spoke until they reached their location.

Still without a word, The Doctor glanced over at The Master and noticed the flimsy t-shirt he was wearing. Rolling his eyes, he grabbed a jacket from the coat rack near the door and threw it towards his friend silently. He wasn’t willing to reveal it, but The Doctor was taken back to their younger days for a moment, with The Master’s complete ignorance for all rational behaviour. He stepped outside of the TARDIS, wrapping his own coat tighter around himself and leaving the door open for The Master to follow after him.

The Master walked gingerly, the snow beneath his feet threatening to trip him up with every step. The Doctor informed him that they had arrived in Svalbard, Norway, the month of January. The year, he insisted, was not necessary information. “Do you know what you can see from here?” The Doctor asked, continuing walking in no particular direction as he looked up at the sky, where the sun was slowly setting. Unsure whether or not he was really supposed to answer that question, The Master shrugged and, though he was out of sight, The Doctor seemed to acknowledge this and inform him that “this is the best place on planet earth to watch Aurora Borealis”. 

Soon enough, they must have reached where The Doctor was heading as he stopped suddenly. He put his hands in his pockets in an attempt to warm up, and looked up towards the sky. Amazingly, nobody else was there with them, and it felt like they truly had the night sky to themselves again. The Master stood silently next to him, close enough for their arms to brush each other as they watched the night sky like they always had done. A bright green haze was spread above them, and the stars around it shone bright as ever. A few too many minutes of silences between the Time Lords ensued, until broken by The Doctor.

“Let’s go there,” he pointed, seemingly at random towards the night sky, just like they had always spent their nights doing back on Gallifrey. The Master smiled sincerely, looking where the Doctor was pointing and nodding along with him, murmuring his agreements. He eagerly began to join in with their old game, pointing to random stars in the sky and insisting they would visit them one day. Everyone now and then, one of them would devise a name for a particular star and insist they would visit that one first. They laughed together as though nothing had changed. As though centuries hadn’t passed, and races hadn’t been destroyed. As though they hadn’t spent hundreds of years on opposite sides of the battlefield and now, under the night sky they stood, they had finally met in no man’s land. 

“I have missed you. I always wanted to fight with you, not against you,” The Doctor admitted, looking down at the other Time Lord now rather than up at the sky. He had bought them here to talk, and that is what they were going to do. The Master continued to look up, as though refusing to let the moment mean too much or get too emotional. He had crossed his arms now, and The Doctor wondered if he was going to be able to get any conversation out of him at all. This could have all been for nothing.

The Master’s hearts increased the rate at which they had been beating, a sense of panic settling in as he realised he had never truly prepared himself for the conversation. The awkward silences and sideward glances were things he had learned to accept and live with, but no matter how many times he tried to talk through this very conversation with himself, he could never make it to the end. Now, it seemed, he would have no choice. “I know you did,” he wasn’t truly sure what else The Doctor expected him to say, but that was apparently enough.

“Did you ever really think about me, Koschei? I mean, really? Other than thoughts of hatred. Did you ever remember how much we loved each other?” Although he was looking back up at the sky now, The Doctor’s voice gave away the tears in his eyes. He didn’t wipe them away, but kept his hands in his pockets and listened intently for The Master’s reply. It seemed to take millennia to arrive.

“No,” The Master spoke the word alone, struggling to tell the truth but knowing it necessary to gain back The Doctor’s trust. The Doctor swallowed hard at this word, wondering if he was being stupid to have even hoped he would have done. “I didn’t let myself think about it. Because I knew that as soon as I thought about you back then - us back then - as soon as I did that I couldn’t go through with it any more. I couldn’t let myself do that,” he spoke with more honesty and sincerity than he had for a long time, and The Doctor knew it. Although he didn’t agree with this way of doing things, he certainly understood them and he nodded in an attempt to portray this. This was all he needed to know, and he decided he was satisfied with the answer or, if nothing else, he was too exhausted to lead it into any kind of argument.

“Let’s get back to the TARDIS,” he spoke softly, taking The Master’s hand in order to lead him back the way they had come. He kept his eyes focused on the snow, following their footsteps back to the TARDIS in order to ensure their safe arrival. Another complete silence was all that existed between them on their journey back. Once they were inside, this didn’t change immediately. Unlike most other times The Doctor got into his TARDIS, he didn’t feel the immediate urge to get going and find a new adventure. He didn’t want to go anywhere right there and then and he certainly didn’t have the energy to care about getting them there.

He watched intently as The Master began flicking switches, as though testing what each of them would do, whilst The Doctor sat to the side and felt himself almost drifting off into a sleep. Two hearts helped with the physical endurance, but emotional endurance was not so strong. He wanted to tell The Master he should stop, and that he hadn’t quite gained that much trust yet but somehow he couldn’t. Somehow, watching his old friend mess around with all the buttons, experimenting like he was a child again, made him happy. He muttered a question about where The Master’s own TARDIS had gone, but The Master just smiled sincerely in response.

“Don’t worry about that. Get some rest, let me drive this thing for a while,” The Master insisted, promising himself he would tell The Doctor about his TARDIS when he was fully revived. For now though, he could admired the calm that seemed to radiate from The Doctor and he couldn’t help but think that maybe, just this once, hope could be enough for the both of them.

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by [this list](http://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you). This is number one.


End file.
